I'm Sorry I Made You My Girlfriend
by TheOneAndOnly1993
Summary: Rena has zero clue why Kaede is her girlfriend, and neither does Kaede. Both believe there's unspoken tension between the two of them, but are too afraid to do something about it. Mitama pushes them closer together (Magia Record fic)
1. Chapter 1

Witches everywhere. Rumors, too. A surplus of godly-powerful, emotionally infantile teenagers. Frothing cultists to boot.

Life in Kamihama was unassuming. Sometimes hard, sometimes fun. Just like anywhere else

A magical girl of said city, however, that life's a barrel of fucking laughs. Rena would know, and that was before the aforementioned problems had begun to stack. Now more than ever, all they had was each other until death claimed them.

One way or another.

And the two latter problems—emotional immaturity and crazy cultists—had almost gotten Kaede murdered. Apparently, those Magius-chicks were getting desperate, attacking the girls associated with Mikazuki House.

Kaede had never hurt anyone. Barely did anything to the Magius except help her friends. Now that was grounds to murder her.

She wasn't, thank God.

But it was close enough to need outside help after the fact. Close enough to make Rena think stupid things, like what she would feel if she blew up Kaede's phone across a strangely silent stretch of days, calling their friendship on and off before getting desperate: bargaining, then apologizing, then coming to understand why Kaede Akino had ghosted such an awful "friend."

Only to find out that Rena—too awful and scared and ashamed to seek out a friend who "clearly" wanted nothing more to do with Rena—had the nerve to get angry at someone long gone.

What a monster she was.

Rena embraced herself, for it was all she had to comfort the pangs twisting neath her bust. _I knew I should have just kept close to her in my free time, disguised. This is my stupid fault. _

Admitting as much, blatant creepiness aside, would only make the pessimistic Kaede Akino blame herself. Somehow; she's the type to find a way.

"Baka-Kaede," said Rena. "You should've called Momoko or me. You got us on speed dial."

"But... midterms have been so grueling."

"You think I give a damn about my grades?" Rena spun a finger between the three of them. "Think any of us have a reason to?"

"Alright, that was a lie." Stretched across the sofa, a battered Kaede sighed, bringing her tattered forearm to her eyes. "I'm sorry, Rena-chan. I just—"

"This will sting," Mitama sang softly, advancing with a swab soaked in rubbing alcohol.

She'd gotten stronger—not even twitching as her cuts began to burn. "Even though I fought them off myself, I wouldn't have made it here if you weren't close enough for telepathy," said Kaede.

This sounded like self-loathing. How annoying. How loathsomely familiar. "You were about to amend your lie."

Kaede winced for that. Or perhaps it was the iciness in her tone. "I didn't... want… to be a bother. I'm sorry."

And that was precisely the problem, ignoring the other side to it that of course Rena knew she didn't, and Kaede on top of that had zero reason to explain herself (solely because she thought Rena was actually mad at her).

_I make her feel this way: wary of my feelings, her standing with me. She might have hit the call button if I didn't. _It's because Rena lied. She'd always lied about how she felt, and Kaede knew it, but not always. But Rena kept up with the charade, because even Kaede would leave her if she didn't.

"Baka-Kaede!" Had she zero clue after being on this team a year, just how precious Kaede was to them? _Probably not, I make her feel this way. She wouldn't feel this way if I didn't make her feel this way. _

Rena couldn't say all that in front of Mitama though. Or Kaede, really. Too weird, too cringey—too anime. "Well, credit where it's due," she huffed, moving on, "you didn't completely suck. Got yourself to Mitama's instead of using magic to heal."

"Indeed!" On her knees, Mitama hobbled to Kaede's battered legs, dragging down her thigh-high sock deftly, peeling it from her toes, and tossing the bloodied rag behind her. "Now you have a juicy doppel-ready soul gem to unleash upon the next sorry fools who jump you!" she chirped, dabbing Kaede's leg.

"We can see that," Rena sighed, distracting herself with Kaede's soul gem—black as night, bespeckled with dying crimson stars. "It's darker than it was when I found you."

Kaede gazed as if something sad lurked within the ceiling's shadowy depths. "So?"

" _So, _" Mitama cut in before Rena could ask what's wrong, "nobody wants you unleashing Zola," she tutted. "Quite a messy beastie you keep locked up, Kaede-chan! I know you can't help how it came out, like you ruin everything you touch, but don't literally do so within my shop! Other girls use this space, too~"

"Ah! Um, s-sorry!"

Mitama giggled, shedding Kaede's other sock. "You've done nothing wrong. _Yet _. Isn't that right, Rena-chan?"

"Don't talk like you know Kaede-chan's going to mess something up."

"Oh dear, oh my! I had no idea you believed boo-boos only happened to you."

"That's not what I was saying!"

"No, no, you were saying something far more interesting, and dare I say, adorable?" Mitama glanced over, meeting Rena's eyes. Something mischievous lurked withi— _she just fucking winked, what is she—? _

"Kaede-chan~, do you ever feel burdensome to your little girlfriend here?"

Fuck. This. Chick. Fuck her for saying that _and _embarrassing Kaede, and fuck her for making Rena's heart skip a beat.

"Mitama-san!" Kaede shrilled, clapping her ruddying cheeks.

"She's not my girlfriend," Rena stated, crossing her arms. "Kaede's my servant."

Mitama applauded, tossing aside the cotton swab. "How kinky!" She held her hands together, looking between an embarrassed Kaede and the outwardly-indifferent Rena, frown deepening "Oh, poo. I suppose I did misunderstand. My apologies, girls."

And she moved on from that, as Mitama was wont to do.

They started making dinner after Kaede changed back into her school uniform, wherein Momoko showed up during table-setting to ensnare her teammates in a too-tight, too-worried, wholly welcome yet totally unneeded hug. She embarrassed Rena by making her want to hold on longer.

Mitama didn't mention or suggest anything lewd about Rena and Kaede's friendship again. That's why Rena so stupidly thought Mitama had actually moved on from that. But she wouldn't be Mitama if she had, and she held Rena back as Kaede and Momoko left the shop.

And she whispered in her ear, "You always make me sad, Rena-chan. There's a lot of pain in your eyes."

"Excuse me?" she uttered, cold enough to probably scare even a witch.

But Mitama was a whole other monster: "I know it, I see it, and Momoko worries about you a lot. The both of you."

"Freaking Momoko." That stupid, great, wannabe big sister. "The hell's your point? Can I go now? I need to study for tomorrow's midterm."

"I'm just saying," Mitama whispered, even softer, "that I know you to be quite the navel-gazer, my self-loathing little friend." Rena's breath caught. Even softer, "But I never knew until today, just how literally it can be applied."

Chilly spider legs scuttled up her spine.

"She does have a cute little belly, doesn't she, Rena-chan?"

Rena tore away, reared back her fist— " P-P- _Pervert!" _—and let it fly.

Mitama's patronizing smile didn't drop an inch as her veil materialized in a flash, catching and wrapping round Rena's fist. "Oh-h'oh, perhaps I read you perfectly back there!"

"As if! If you caught me looking there, it was totally by accident!"

Turquoise light set her veil aglow, because of course Rena had to punch with her ring-adorned hand. Warmth so unimaginably good blossomed from her core, her very soul, and she moaned like a pervert. "Dammit, Mitama-san!" Rena whimpered, buckling, clasped underarm by the Coordinator.

"Oh me, oh my!" Mitama breathed, eyes wide. "I can see you've made many a-naughty, lonely memories since I first touched your soul gem, Rena-chan!"

"Shut up!"

"Do you think of Kaede-chan every time?" Rena yanked away, but Mitama's hold was firm. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. Every girl does it!"

"What's it to you?! Why are you doing th- _h'is?! _" She snapped back as Mitama let go, her hand flying. "Freak! You perv!" Wet warmth tickled the length of her cheeks. More insults danced on the tip of her tongue, but Rena choked as sorrow wrenched Mitama features.

"Apologies for making you cry."

"I'm not crying!" As she wiped her face, never breaking stare.

Mitama folded her arms. "I promise to never tease you again. But you must promise me to speak candidly with Kaede-chan, if you want me to uphold my end of the bargain."

Fuck no—she'd never want to be friends with Rena again. "Why do you care about how I feel?!"

"Rena! Coordinator's not torturing you, is she?" Momoko called from outside.

"We're fine!~" Mitama's head cocked, her melancholy fixed. Genuine. "It's because I care about you. And Kaede, and Momoko. It's _because _I care about you girls that you make me so very sad."

Rena couldn't think of what to say fast enough—unable to even bite back. _No you don't, _her instincts cried, her walls rising.

But the tenderness with which Mitama clasped her hand, played with her ring, smiled fondly…

Someone who approached everything from a business perspective wouldn't risk losing a customer. This was real. She really cared and wanted to help Rena here.

Her gaze lifted, locking. "You girls would be great for each other. I mean that with all my heart."

Rena was frozen stiff. Saying anything would either be an obvious lie, or damn her to a reality she was too scared to acknowledge to another soul. It would be so much easier if Momoko were in Mitama's place.

The Coordinator eased her hand back down. "I will not tell you how to live your life," she said, straightening, smile returning. "But if you ever assault me in my domain again, I _will _tell Kaede-chan you flick the bean thinking about her tummy."

Rena cussed her out, for being such an embarrassing perv and assuming something that might not be true.

It was, but not wholly.

For Kaede was so much more than an object to lust for. And it was all that "more" which kept Rena up at night, repulsed by her glistening fingers and musky smell.

_Effing dammit, Mitama-san. _

**Two (and a half) Months Later**

"Hmm…" Mitama's long legs crossed then uncrossed as she lounged back. She crossed again, fingers atop the swell of her chest. "This is indeed a communication conundrum," she informed the ceiling. "Have you at all considered it's because of your sex life, Kaede-chan?"

She nearly dropped her teacup—steaming amber splashed against its little plate, pricking her thumb. "Ow!" The platter switched hands, Kaede sucking her digit's tip until it only tingled. Wiping against her skirt, she said, "You always say such embarrassing things, Coordinator-san."

"Yet you come to me and only me for relationship advice. I'm flattered, by the way, as always."

Kaede shrugged, eyes on Mitama's legs. "Momoko-chan told me right out the gate that she knew nothing of l-lo-lo… Liking someone a lot." Those legs were a little too… plump for her personal liking, no offense to Mitama.

"Oh dearie, you're still on _this _stage."

Gorgeous young woman, undoubtedly, but she wasn't... small and twiggy like—

"Kaede-chan~"

"Ah!"

"My eyes are up here~"

"S-sorry! Forgive me!" Kaede bowed.

A titter, because of course Mitama wouldn't mind. "I'm flattered by that, too." Kaede could only feel her face burn. "As I was saying, my goodness, Kaede-chan! You and Rena still can't say you love each other, even in private?"

"We don't!" Kaede cried, a black rot ravaging her insides on the spot. "I-I mean, I—! Um! Is—isn't it too soon to be saying that? Mitama-Coordinator-s-s-san?"

Mitama rolled her eyes, smiling despite it all. Or at Kaede's clumsiness. "The heart feels what it feels, sweet girl. I've seen people profess their love within their confession, and watch as those relationships _soar _into the couples' golden years."

"You have?" Kaede's heart skipped a beat. "Where?"

"Romcoms!"

She… wasn't taking this seriously. She didn't have to, why would she anyway? Mitama had as much experience as Momoko, she didn't know what Kaede was going through, much less understand why she was here in the first place—

"Kaede? Where are you going?"

She found herself standing, teacup untouched with a small pool at the base within its platter set upon the coffee table.

Where was she going?

"Home," was the best Kaede could come up with. "I'm sorry for wasting your time, Mitama-san. But this isn't a movie, it's real."

"But of course," Mitama cried, though her voice was soft as ever. "I assure you I'm not taking this lightly. My thinking, here, is writers often spin their narratives from personal experience, do they not?"

"I… don't know."

"Well, I do," she boasted. "Because I know many girls, my dear Kaede-chan, and some of them are accomplished writers. All of them say they put a little bit of themselves into what they create."

"I feel like we're getting off track, Mitama-san."

"But we're not—"

"We are!" The jump in volume was enough to hit even Mitama, forcing her away with such apprehension that Kaede couldn't stand it. "We are," she told the floor, "because… because if we treated this lightly, I could end up seriously hurting Rena-chan! What if I tell her this, and she says nothing back? Just thinking that gets me so sad!" Mitama opened her lips, but Kaede wasn't done—her heart, finally, had so much it was unafraid to say: "Or worse, what'll happen to us if she accepts and tells me she loves me back, only because she's thinking like I do—because I _know _she does—when really it's to make sure I stay with her? She's so _fragile, _Mitama-san, like you wouldn't believe! And… oh, _God _, what if-what if-what if I _think _I love her, only to realize a few months from now that I confused _love _with _infatuation _like Aimi Eri-san, and I tell her this and-and it would just break her heart, Mitama-san! It would crush her and I can barely breathe when I think that!"

"Kaede."

She's going to ruin this.

"Kaede-chan."

She's going to screw this up like she did everything else and hurt someone so beautiful forever. Ruin her.

"Kaede!"

"Rena probably only said yes because she didn't want to lose me as a friend." The thought chilled Kaede so, despite her self-embrace. It was the girl she was so crazy about, she pretended. "That would be in-character for her, yes, absolutely. Because, because-because _Rena… _she doesn't ever kiss me. She doesn't kiss her girlfriend, we've only kissed once and it's because our faces were close and I kept looking at her lips and she was glancing at mine and so I knew it was okay so I moved in, and it only lasted a second but—!"

But it was wonderful, like the firm, warm embrace Mitama suddenly engaged with her.

"Breathe in." Kaede did so. "And… breathe out." She followed. Mitama continued, rubbing her back in small, soothing circles, "You care so much about Rena that it makes my heart ache. I would redo my contract with Kyubey to find someone half as passionate and empathetic as you. That, to me, is proof of your love for Minami Rena-chan."

Kaede hiccuped, wiping her face into Mitama's bosom. She didn't even realize she was crying, or when she'd started, she was so engrossed in her own thoughts.

And engrossed she was, as Mitama said, "You're not the only girl in this relationship to come to me for advice."

"I had a feeling," Kaede mumbled.

"I'm blurring the line of my rule, I know. But this, you need to hear this much, at least: Rena needs you. In my opinion, she loves you, too. And yet there's still clearly a wall impeding you two from ascending the realm of friendship."

Kaede pulled away, grasping Mitama's forearms. "It's not like we haven't changed, or that we're awkward around each other or anything," she cried. "We spend a lot more time together. We go to movies and out to dinner. We share bentos as school and hold hands when no one's around. Rena…" A tingling warmth brought "that smile" to her face—the one Rena always points out and asks it's meaning, to which Kaede always replies that it's because of her. "Rena hugs me a lot now. We fall asleep sometimes in each other's arms."

A gentle laugh. Genuine adoration twinkled in Mitama's eyes. "That sounds wonderful. Anything else?"

Suddenly Kaede felt incredibly small, and foolish. "That's it. We talk more, but—"

"About?"

Kaede blanched; she knew Mitama wouldn't pressure her for details, but still… "It's personal," she said. "But I've told her more than once about how I feel about myself. How I feel like a burden, both in my grades and the battles. My childhood, too, and sometimes in classes when we're not together—the way kids always picked me last in sports, or gave me the easiest part to do in projects. How some of the meaner ones would say things loud enough for me to hear."

Lame. Weird. A crybaby.

"And? What does Rena-chan say?"

Kaede swallowed, unable to meet the Coordinator's prying gaze, to see the disappointment manifest within as she confessed, "Rena-chan… gets… mad. At all of it, at those kids, at me for not standing up to myself, or for feeling this way. I know it's because she cares, I do, but… sometimes… I dunno." A shrug. "I've spent so much of my life shown that most kids don't see anything worth spending a single thought on, that I think to myself that even Rena-chan is annoyed by my attitude and moaning."

Rena had opened up about similar bullying she experienced, that she still does to this day. But not nearly as much, nor with the occasional tear—never with those. And she brushes them off like they're nothing, because she's tough. Because Kaede can say nothing that will undo any of the hurt that sort of life inflicts.

Mitama hummed, rubbing her chin. Kaede looked back to the sofa as she lowered herself to take a seat. "May I be blunt for a moment?"

Wasn't she always? "S-sure." Kaede twiddled her thumbs.

"You need to pretend breakup with Rena."

"What?!"

"Now hear me out," said Mitama, holding up a hand. She knelt before Kaede, took both hands in hers. "Right now, nothing is moving forward in your relationship. You two trust each other, clearly. In ways not even your parents are privy to. And you love—yes, I'll say it, love—each other too much to want to truly leave this relationship, nor risk hurting one another."

"I don't understand, though."

Mitama smiled, squeezing Kaede's hands. "As we've discussed in the past, it was Rena who needed a push by me to get to where you are now. Well, now I'm advising you to push back, because it seems that that's all this silly girl responds to. Make her realize what it is she'll lose. If she cares and wants more out of this relationship, well," Mitama clucked, "you pull the rug out from under her. And neither of you will have these fears again, God willing."

Kaede choked. "But what if she accepts, and we go back to being friends?!"

Mitama shrugged haplessly, but her thumbs rubbed circles on the backs of Kaede's hands. "Then you go back to being friends. You continue having a wonderful, special bond privy only to the two of you. There is beauty in that, and love just as valid as the romantic variety. Either way, this tension and fear between you two will be dispelled, and you'll be all the happier for it."

This made so much sense. It was brilliant. It was so kind of Mitama to help them like this. "Why do you care so much, Mitama-san?"

She stood swiftly, her smile gentle. "I just want my little gaybies to be happy."

"Jeez." There she goes again. Kaede covered her burning cheeks.

She upheld a finger. "And my last piece of advice comes from years of lonely nights diddling myself to erotica and doujin."

"Mitama-san!" Kaede's ears burned, but not for this advice.

Yet she heard loud and clear Mitama at her most profound and wise she'd ever been: "Love is natural and beautiful. Making it equally so. It's not the scary, ugly thing Americans dress with shame. It's a conversation."

"A what? Really?" Kaede met her eyes, mystified. Her core squirmed, and it wasn't unpleasant.

"Yes, a conversation," Mitama cooed, glazed eyes gazing into something romantic in the distance. "Much is said in the way two people express their love. It's beautiful, I will always think that. Even these last two months, the lack of such lewdness has said much about the two of you."

Something bad, if anything. Pathetic. Rena had been sending the signal that she didn't want that kind of relationship, but Kaede and her stupid scared brain likely sent the same message right back in her face and made her feel this way.

"I see that look." A gloved hand came forth, palms up, lifting Kaede's chin. "Don't wear that face. If anything, the two of you have signaled something so wonderfully innocent beneath all the fear and tension."

"What? Mitama-san, what? Please tell me."

She folded her arms, cocking her smiling head. "That Akino Kaede-chan and Minami Rena-chan care more about making one another feel comfortable than satiating their own carnal desires."

That… was true, at least on Kaede's part. Though afraid of overstepping some invisible boundary, she wouldn't dare take advantage of Rena's desperate need for a close relationship. At the heart of it, she was certain this was what stayed her hand when alone with Rena, beneath the selfish, anxious fears she was too scared to voice.

Mitama's soft tittering brought her back to the moment. "I know I wouldn't be able to hold out for so long, especially with either of you two cuties."

Kaede groaned, but despite her burning cheeks she felt herself grinning at their silly therapist-slash-friend-slash-Coordinator.

"We know you wouldn't, Mitama-san."


	2. Chapter 2

"_Daddy, do two people marry when they love each other?" _

"_No, sweetie. When two people acknowledge one another's weaknesses, and wanna devote their lives to making each other stronger, that's when they decide to marry." _

* * *

Summer was almost bearing down upon Kamihama. Kaede was so glad Rena accepted to hold hands beneath her family quilt despite this.

Kaede couldn't have taken an entire movie with her girlfriend like this. There was just no way.

"That movie sucked," she stated over the end credits.

Kaede, however, felt for the hundreds involved with any production. But she couldn't lie, least of all to the scrutinous Rena: "It kinda did."

"But it was so funny." She turned her grin towards Kaede. "Those skeletons were clearly puppets just thrown at the actor in that one scene."

Laughing, Kaede said, "And the way he broke that one's spine over his knee like a twig?"

"And the skelly there just didn't even try stabbing him with its knife!" Rena fell over, snickering into Kaede's shoulder.

"It saw he was wearing god-tier plot armor," she intoned, "and accepted its fate." That got Rena cackling, hard. So hard she started coughing. Kaede rubbed her back.

Composing herself, Rena returned her smile on Kaede, cheeks flushed pale within the credits' glow. "This was a lot of fun."

"Yeah. Bad Movie Monday's become my favorite day of the week."

"Next weekend we're starting the Biohazard movies," said Rena, muttering, "Or as the Americans call it: 'Rezidento E-ville.'"

Kaede groaned. "Rena, I can't stand those awful horror shows. _This _was fine because it was so clearly campy, but zombies?" They were like Familiars, but human, and they devoured sentient, terrified, sentient humans like animals, rending them to bits as they screamed for help that they knew wouldn't come.

Far more scary than Witches' cronies.

"But these movies are funny-bad, Kaede. Trust me. You can't take them seriously. And if the first is too much for you, we'll find something else. I don't care," Rena grunted as she stretched, shoulders popping as the blanket fell from her shoulders.

_...as the blanket fell from her shoulders! _

Kaede swallowed. Her plan had to have failed eventually, and a terrible part of her—a writhing in her belly—thanked God it did.

Because Rena, having gone home to feed her brother before coming over, arrived in form-fitting jeans, a ton of bracelets, and a purple Fumino Sayuki tank top that showed off a fair bit of skin. The whole look was cutesy punkish, simultaneously bringing out the harsh aura Rena gave off to outsiders whilst hinting at what lay beneath: a small girl trying her hardest to be fearfully big.

It was cute. _Rena _was cute.

So was her top. Really, it was great! Rena didn't know that Kaede thought that, but Kaede knew herself unfortunately well enough to know she more than liked it.

Like, her entire arms were showing. And her shoulders! When does anyone see those except at the pool?! Rena's neck, too—it was so slim, just like her.

Kaede's gaze dropped suddenly and snapped away for the millionth time since they started dating.

_Why? Why can't I stop doing that?! _This top was at once the best and the worst. _It's just presenting to the world her—! Her big… big—!_

NO! NO! NO! Kaede shouldn't care! She's seen this top before, loads of times! Even after Rena confessed (screamed) her feelings to Kaede, she didn't feel quite so… so needy as she had now!

So why?

Or, rather, why had Kaede been such a depraved teenager since her secret visit to Mitama's? Half the time her thoughts weren't even so dirty, but…

But since then, whenever the moment got quiet and she had nothing to distract her, Kaede's thoughts drifted to Rena.

To all the times she was Kaede's shoulder to cry on.

How much she smiled now.

How much she cried, rare as her tears were.

The way her "crying" typically amounted to a single, frustrated sob, but only ever—_EVER_—done around Kaede, who only knew because Rena told her as much.

How she'd blush when they held hands and ate lunch outside at school, how angry she got when Kaede would point it out, and furiously protective when others would.

The way she got redder the more embarrassed she became.

Now, ever since Mitama filled her head with "lovemaking" and it being a conversation, it had been much harder to just see Rena as simple Rena—Kaede's best friend-slash-girlfriend. It's not that Kaede was asexual or anything beforehand. Rena had always been cute and attractive, her figure enviously healthy. And voluptuous, too.

All of this was thought before they'd started dating.

Now, though… the things Mitama had said about their bond: its specialness, the idea of love and making love kept her awake at night, thoughts running amok. Sometimes Kaede touched herself to these sentiments, these images. Always she hated herself afterwards, hated how Rena would react.

She didn't know Rena's feelings about such things, who never, ever said anything about one's physical appearance. Not Kaede's, not her own, not the idol Sayuki. Never. It at least suggested she didn't care, then, right?

On the other end of the spectrum cowered Kaede Akino: with her… her own _shitty _body, drooling over a girl who unlike Rena lacked the godlike courage to confess her feelings.

Rena could do such things, despite her fears. And to a girl, at that! A girl who was her one of her only friends; who might not feel the same, who might avoid her forever after out of awkwardness.

_I don't have an ounce of Rena's courage, _thought Kaede, and then, _Curse that pervy Coordinator-san, filling my head with… with such beastly things! _

Yet, Kaede's stomach twisted just as badly now as it had all those other times, lewd or not. _I'm scared, _she realized. _I'm having a 'life flashing before my eyes' moment every time I think about Rena, because… because I don't want this dream to end! I want to stay with Rena so badly, but I also… dang it, I want more of Rena-chan! _

Curse Mitama Yakumo for awakening this part of Kae—!

"Ah!" A dull, yet sharp thunk had resounded, stinging her forehead. "Owie." Kaede clasped the spot, met with Rena's piercing, yet softened gaze.

Rena, whose cleavage deepened as her breasts fluffed up—her arms had crossed. "Come back to Earth, space cadet. I've been saying your name forever." Kaede was depraved for noting one before the other. "Kaede?" She was disgusting. "Kaede!" Rena deserved better than someone who objectified her. "Hey."

Warm fingers pressed beneath her chin, her face lifting. Another set brushed away wet warmth from either cheek. The air conditioner hummed softly in the DVD menu's silence, cooling the tracks Rena left behind.

Rena, whose scowl was gone. Now there was only worry. "Why the hell are you crying?" she murmured. Eyes widening, both hands moved, grasping Kaede's shoulders. "Are those bitches in your homeroom laughing about us again?"

Kaede was too scared to wipe away her tears. "N-no?" Why did she answer like that? A slight twinge in her features, akin to shock after a slap in the face for Rena, sent Kaede sputtering for recovery. "I'm not upset! Or scared. Of anything at school." It was impossible to lie to Rena—dancing around the truth was all she could do until a convincing opportunity presented itself.

_Goodness, why am I still lying? _

The heavy warmth on her shoulders was gone—Rena's hands curled against her thighs. "Did I do something?" she asked, quiet. Her bangs hung to conceal her eyes. "Please, Kaede. Tell me if I did."

The waver in her voice shuddered through Kaede's soul. Rena had already concluded that she did something, hated herself for it.

_This is why. _Among many, many other reasons, of course: _This is why I can't follow through with Mitama's plan. Even if it won't last long, I can't stand the thought of Rena feeling bad._

"Rena-chan."

Her face flickered up as Kaede's dropped down, unable to bear whatever look was in her eyes. "You haven't called me that since we started dating."

"Because, R-Rena-chan…" Kaede bunched up the cuffs of her boy's basketball shorts, uncovering kneecaps browned slightly from weeding earlier. "Because… I'm feeling this way, because I… I care about you so much. And… it's because I care about you so much that I'm so scared of doing something stupid that will hurt you."

"Tch. N-nothing you could do'll get through me!" she tried boasting.

"Th-then th-that makes… _this…_" Her words, already soft, broke into a whisper and died unfinished.

"Huh? Speak louder, Kaede, I hate it when you mumble to me. You got nothing to be afraid of—"

"_Then that makes this easier let's break up okay?!" _

Kaede huffed, puffed, gasped and sniffled.

Rena sat there, eyes wide but nothing more. She didn't care.

_She doesn't care. She doesn't have to, she's her own person, I'm the one-the one who… who—! _

A choked gasp. A sniveling inhale, dampened exhale.

None of which came from her own pounding chest.

Tears were spotted snaking down Rena's cheeks, her throbbing lips desperately pursed shut. "Ok-_ay_," she croaked, "sure, Kaede. Chan. I-if that's what you want…" Her wrists, hands, when to wiping her cheeks, her eyes. "I get it, yeah, I won't f-force you or anything—"

It was too much. "No!" She hurt Rena, made her cry—_I went too far. I shouldn't have said anything. If I didn't, then we'd still be happy. _

And Kaede would know what she already had, deep down: Rena didn't want this either. She had always been serious about this relationship.

"I'm so sorry, Rena!" Kaede lunged forth.

Only to be shoved back unto the couch. "Don't! You don't have to pity me!" Rena snarled, grief channeling to anger—her usual defense. "Dammit, Kaede, _why?_ How the fuck did I fuck this up, huh!? You could tell me that much, dammit!"

"I didn't mean it!" And Kaede felt cold all over, a beat before Rena's tears seemed to freeze, her expression dubious, confused, _pissed. _"I… I didn't want to hurt you, Rena," she explained, sitting up crisscross. "But Mitama-san, she—"

"Oh," Rena muttered thickly. Then exhaling, "That… that explains it. There was this part of me that couldn't believe this was true. Like it wasn't actually you doing this. Stupid, huh?"

Kaede didn't hesitate to shake her head, alleviate Rena's self-deprecation. "You were right."

"So, then…" Rena glared at the television. "Why the hell did Mitama-san tell you to break up with me?" Her fists squeezed so tight her knuckles paled—Kaede only knew from the way they trembled.

She should be directing that anger towards her stupid pessimistic girlfriend. _Why did I ever doubt you? _she thought one moment. But the reason had long been known: "Because... I wanted to know how you really felt. I'm sorry!" Kaede bowed on the spot. "I didn't know how else and I was scared to ask, and if you didn't wanna be girlfriends I'd still love to be friends—!" Her face was grabbed firmly.

Rena looked Kaede in the eye as she asked, "Am I honestly that bad, Kaede?"

"No!" she cried, pinning Rena to her cheeks. "No, Rena, no-no, you've been amazing! I've been so happy since we got together, I mean that!"

A sad smile. "Yeah, I could tell." Frowning, she tilted her head. "But then, what the hell's your deal? Why go to Mitama-san instead of… talking to me?" She shook her head, trying to pull her hands away but Kaede held firm, held them together in her lap. "Tell me, Kaede. Please. I… I really want to make you happy."

From eyes unsee, droplets burst soundlessly against Rena's many bracelets.

"Rena," Kaede began, breathing, exhaling, "how come you don't—?" she choked, sighing, groaning and shaking her head. It was boiling in here despite the AC groaning.

The silence was filled by tinkling from Don-chan's collar behind Kaede, beside the sofa as he was roused from sleep. The chiming harshened, joined by flapping ears as he shook his head.

"Kaede?" One of Rena's hands slipped out to lace their fingers together, to squeeze reassuringly. "I won't be mad. I promise. I promise I won't be mad."

It's not which she was afraid of. It was literally anything else besides an unrealistic joyous reaction: disgust, perturbation, fear… and maybe anger, honestly.

"Kaede, for God's sake, I won't ever know if you don't—"

"_Rena how come you don't want to kiss me?!" _Apparently she could only scream her confessions like her girlfriend would. Eyes kept shut, barreling through the flood of squeamishness in her belly, Kaede prattled on: "How come you don't want to touch me like a girlfriend would?! How come you don't ever look at me the way like—! ...Like _I _look at _you?_" she finished softly.

An inhale, probably priming a derision, to label Kaede a pervert. A stupid horny teenager. Because Rena never cared about the stuff and she wouldn't ever force herself to, not for anybody's sake, least of all depraved helpless crybaby Kaede Akino.

"And I would be fine with it, if you didn't… didn't want any of that," she forced herself to say. Because it was true: "I would rather have you and none of that than none of either. I can definitely live without it." Besides, it wasn't so bad—masturbating alone, shameful as it was. "All I want to know… all I _really _wanted to know, this whole time, was if… _if_…"

Rena squeezed her hand.

"If you… _liked _me... um, that way. Because… because I… do. Like you! That… way—_I'm sorry!_"

Don-chan yawned in the background. "I'm sorry." The AC fell awkwardly silent. "Th-that was weird."

"Kaede."

"_I'm sorry that was weird!" _

"Kaede, look at me… Kaede!" Her eyes opened after a few tries. "Oi, oi. My face, not my lap." It took a thousand years to find Rena's face, but the sight of her bulbous extremities rushed the journey to its conclusion: a knee-weakening stern expression.

Or it might have been.

Kaede couldn't be too sure this time.

Because Rena lunged.

It was immediate, the instant their eyes locked she tackled, Kaede's face sandwiched tight and her lips even tighter between Rena's own. Her back thumping against the sofa, Rena's butt pinning her stomach, an explosion of emotions flooding her core—it was too much to take in and not enough at the same time.

Rena obliged herself—kissed her more than Kaede ever thought she would or could in ten seconds flat: peppering, smacking, switching angles a few times and grunting softly each time they broke off, only to be recaptured a thunderous heartbeat later.

Two passed and Kaede was sad to think it over, only to gasp as a warmer, wetter warmth snaked up her cheeks: gently by little laps from the tip of Rena's tongue, cleaning any lingering tears all the way up to her eyelashes and kissing beneath each.

Suddenly, too soon, the warmth left her altogether, her face and loins left to tingle awfully. Gone was the warmth of Rena's shaking breaths, the hands which had moved to Kaede's shoulders, squeezing them tight with want and comfort.

It was so quick it felt like it hadn't occurred at all.

But that… had undeniably happened. It actually just… happened!

Kaede blinked, the daze dissipating as the heat in her core writhed—hungrily, vying for more. _Oh, my goodness, _Kaede would have gasped had she the strength to do so, _I want more and I don't feel bad about it because… because my Rena does, too! _

Wait.

_Rena?_

The ceiling, she realized, was vacant of her girlfriend's face, as was the weight on Kaede's torso. _Her butt was touching me… _

Kaede shook her head, pushed herself up.

And winced at the sight awaiting her: Rena balled up on the other end of the couch, as far back as she could physically be, clasping her cherry-red face. Panting.

"I'm sorry," she breathed, staring not directly at Kaede but somewhere in the darkness of her thoughts. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just… When I heard you say that, I just, I-I-I—"

"'Realized I felt the same?'" Kaede ventured. She still felt Rena's lips, devouring hers every way they could. "I didn't—_never_—thought you thought of me like that, Rena. It was amazing." Rena's apprehension lessened, only slightly. "My heart is still racing," Kaede confessed, her girlfriend's knees easier to behold as she touched her thumping sternum. "And… I want to do it again. If I'm being honest—"

"Kaede…" Rena began, finishing with her: "It was impossible to think you felt this way about me." She frowned at Kaede having been the only one to say, 'about me.' Rena inhaled, blushed, and sputtered, growling at herself. It was adorable, her embarrassment.

Rather than explain her self image in this delicate moment, Kaede took the opportunity to ask, "How come you never tried anything with me?" Especially with so much lust put into that makeout session—_Oh, my gosh, I actually had a makeout session with Rena! AH! _

"Tch. You're even smiling as you ask that. I can't believe this." Of course Rena would find something to hate about herself in this instance. Kaede crawled over as Rena shook her head. "I put you through so much stupid… so many _bad feelings_ since we started dating. All because I was too afraid to push you into something I thought you would never wanna—!"

Kaede captured her bottom lip. Rena peeped in surprise before melting into her, leaning, moaning softly. She was so warm. She was trembling so bad, restraining herself or from sheer emotion, or a cocktail of it all, Kaede couldn't be sure. But she loved it. She loved seeing this side of Rena and she loved _Rena_.

They switched head tilts, Kaede's nails sinking into her own forearm to keep from blurting out such heated, lustful things that could risk hurting Rena if they weren't from the heart.

This, for sure, wasn't the time nor place to be professing such things.

A soft smack as Kaede broke off, bowing to tap her head against her girlfriend's. "Of course," Kaede breathed, throat clenching. She swallowed. "Of course you, Rena, would consider me before yourself." Mitama had said as much. She really was a genius. "You're honestly amazing."

"_No_, I'm really _not_."

So much pain and loathing in those hissed words. "You are," Kaede assured, stroking Rena's forearm, whose fingers stretched to brush against her skin. So gentle a gesture, Kaede couldn't help but smile. "I'm telling you you are. So there."

Rena shook without breaking their forehead-kiss. "If I was, I'd have known how I would've made you feel from the start. How you really felt all this time." She hissed, cringing. "So stupid, stupid-ass Rena—!"

Kaede leaned back, but not so far she couldn't feel the warm, wavering exhales passing Rena's soft little lips. "Same with me," she said, smiling despite how agonizing this whole affair had been. "I would have known, too. Should've. But I was so focused on not hurting you I made you end up hating those natural, wonderful feelings you had for me." It was like a bad comedy, like the one they just watched. Kaede had to chortle, lest she start crying.

"Rena," she said, "we're really bad at talking, aren't we?"

A smile returned, equally as pained as Kaede's felt. "Kinda, yeah. You're worse though." As Kaede opened her mouth to speak, Rena winced. "No, I am. I'm so much worse. I'm sorry, Kaede. I'm sorry I made you my girlf—"

_Enough of that. _Kaede swooped in to silence that self-hating mouth of hers. She withdrew after a few seconds with a pop after Rena's breath hitched, deteriorating. "Rena?"

Her eyes opened, lidded with lust, moist with anger and regret.

Kaede entwined their hands. "I think I'm kinda done," she exhaled, her courage fading faster than her lust and heart rate skyrocketed. It hurt so bad, everywhere hurt so bad and it felt amazing at the same time. "I'm done talking with words."

Rena hummed, brows knitting.

Kaede chortled to herself as she rose, pulling her along, urging Rena to stand as well, eyes locked all the while. "I… want to go to bed," she managed, squeezing those delicate fingers.

"Uh. Um!" Rena looked between them and Kaede's burning face, their fingers and her smile once more. "A-are you—? Ah, no! I mean, sh-should I leave? I'll leave if—"

The thought of Rena feeling pressured came suddenly. "N-no, no, I don't want anything you won't feel comfortable with!" Either that or she didn't want to assume anything and look like a perv.

Rena shrank into her shoulders, eyes flickering to and fro before settling on Kaede's chin. "Are… you saying you…"

Squeezing her hand, Kaede said with all her excitement and anxiety pushed out of mind, "Yes!"

Still without looking, "But your parents might—"

"They're gone for the week, Rena-chan," Kaede teased. "I told you that at lunch today while you were so busy scraping the sides of our pudding cup. After finishing it yourself."

"S-sorry. I'll buy tomorrow's. On our way to school." She, at last, squeezed back, her palm fully laid against Kaede's, warm. "T-together. I-if you want, of course, I don't really care."

Kaede giggled—at her courtesy, embarrassment, her thinking the dessert was such a big deal.

"Kaede, I…" Rena scowled, her cheeks puffed out as her gaze flashed to join Kaede's at last. "I'm afraid of attacking you like before. So, I… I don't wanna hear any crying or blaming later, got it?"

She was definitely going to regret how that came out, so before she could, Kaede put on a smirk she knew was wholly out of character and said, "Oh, that was supposed to be an attack?"

Rena's eyes flared open, her expression otherwise unreadable: she had the confirmation of consent, the want from Kaede, her own having been pent up for months and wholly embraced by the one she trusted above all others.

And above it all, she was just given a challenge. The fires within them both were now stoked into a roaring inferno.


	3. Chapter 3

Rena's legs moved like stilts, her every step considered to the last ligament it seemed. Kaede thought it to be nerves.

Part of her did, at least—hoped more than anything: _This is a first for her, _she assured herself. _Of course Rena's nervous. I'm not one to talk, I still feel like I'm dreaming!_

The rest of her, however, was worried.

After all, this was Rena Minami. There was always more than a single something going on beneath that soft scowl. Maybe she was worried about screwing up, or saying something "dumb." Nowadays she would express the issue, albeit in a roundabout way, to Kaede.

But she said nothing. Neither did Kaede, fearing presumptuousness and inadvertently looking down on Rena, offending her.

So they walked down the hall, silently hand in hand; their shared vice grip screaming of their true feelings.

_What if she's quiet because I didn't give her an option back on the couch? _Kaede wondered.

The closer they got, the heavier her feet weighed, shocks from their falls surging up her legs. The knee supporting her leg as she took a step with the other trembled awfully, ready to collapse, her heart slamming harder and faster all the while.

_Or is it because I'm not attractive? _she thought, taking another step.

_Is she judging my outfit? My b-ball shorts and dino tee? _And another.

_Is Rena going to care that I didn't shave down there? _And another.

_Does she _really _want to do this? _And another.

_What if I fail to please her? What if I go too far? _

This was really about to happen. The corridor spun, her door cocking right.

She and Rena, they were about to… actually… _for real… _

"Woah! Kaede?" Rena cried, staggering under Kaede's full weight thrown into her side.

"Sorry, m'sorry," she breathed, legs crossing to regain support. "I… just got a bit dizzy, s'all."

Rena, both hands around Kaede's bicep, moved one to her adjacent armpit and hoisted her. It was like a hug, so firm and protective, and it was from _Rena. _Kaede leaned into her girlfriend's fleshy bosom, heart backflipping at the idea of finally getting to see it, at all the ways she could make Rena feel good.

"Kaede? I-if you're feeling nervous, we don't gotta do anything tonight. I don't want you forcing yours—_mm!_" Rena squeaked, exhaling raggedly against Kaede's cheek.

Fingers dared to cup Kaede's jawline, touch it so gently it made her weak in the heart and whimper into Rena's mouth.

Kaede dared as well, despite Rena voicing a desire to go no further. _I won't know how she feels unless I try, just like Mitama-san had said. _

So she dared, and Rena grunted back, bucking her hips as Kaede laid a hand upon her flat stomach. She rubbed up slowly and gently before raking back down, brushing just beneath the swell of her breasts.

"Warn me next time," Rena breathed, "baka-Kaede."

Kaede at once admired her own self restraint and kind of feared her sudden lack of it. "I've wanted you… to want _me_, so badly," she exhaled before her confidence could wane. "For so long, Rena. This feels like a dream."

"God, Kaede…" Rena shivered, her hold tightening, nose burrowing into Kaede's hair.

But after several heartbeats she remained like this—doing nothing, saying nothing; Kaede's heart froze with tension. Gazing upon her face, she caught Rena looking elsewhere, straight ahead at Kaede's bedroom door with a blush.

What war raged within her heart? What more was there to doubt? Unless, of course, she was trying to delay this…

Old fears returned as Kaede recalled Mitama's words: '_Rena needs you.' _But that didn't mean she _wanted _her. After all, she said nothing to Kaede's admittedly cringey confession just now. Just an exclamation that could easily be exasperation coming from her.

"I don't want you feeling forced, either," she murmured, nuzzling the crook of Rena's neck. "We can just cuddle and fall asleep like always. That's enough for me." _For now I supp—no! Forever. It's enough forever. I don't really care, I just want Rena—_

"Nothing's wrong," she stated.

Kaede hadn't asked if there was. But the hallway wasn't the place to discuss such things right now. "I would hope you'd tell me if there _was _something."

Rena was frozen—even her breaths were still.

Then gradually, her hold around Kaede tightened. "Promise me one thing," she said. "Don't you dare laugh at me, ever."

"I wouldn't." When has Kaede ever made fun of her like that? This must be the result of years of mockery.

"I mean it." Rena squeezed, Kaede peeped. "I mean it, Kaede, I mean it. My nerves… I feel like I'm going fuckin' crazy over here. And it's like, like I know you aren't gonna laugh at me, but… _fuck_. Fuck, I don't know, I'm like already deciding that if you somehow do then I'll never get this far again. I'll feel stupid, even more than I do whenever I look at myself in the mirror, whenever I lie in bed and—" She gasped, stopping herself short of finishing.

Kaede rubbed her back, using both hands to stroke her in long, hard strokes. The warmth of Rena's skin seeped through her tank top. "That took a lot for you to say. I'm honored, Rena, I mean that," she said. "I hope you believe me when I tell you I have the exact same worries as you right now."

"Really?"

Kaede's heart clenched, her girlfriend's voice was so feeble. Her very soul here and now was vulnerable to attack, and she trusted Kaede completely with it. "Rena, this is me you're talking to. Honestly… at least… _you _got nothing to laugh about."

"What do you mean about that?" asked the girl with a dynamite body, the kind many Japanese girls would contract Kyubey for.

"That doesn't matter," said Kaede, caressing the back of Rena's head. "You'll see soon enough. You'll understand why I trust you so deeply, with… with my everything." _Why I love you, Rena. I really do think I love you… _

They advanced the last couple steps, sides pressed together. As Rena turned the knob, something with a chill damp booped the back of Kaede's knee, reminding her they weren't alone tonight. For him, she found the willpower to separate from Rena and turn, crouching before Don-chan.

The old mutt's eyes flickered between her and Rena, sniffing frantically as he leaned up into Kaede's descending hand. "I'm sorry, boy," she said in a baby voice, "Rena-chan's sharing my bed tonight." Kaede raked below the ears and his sides aggressively, going, "Mushi-mushi-mushi!" Don-chan seemed to understand that she still loved him, as he turned back toward the hall he followed from.

"Oi. Lotion your hands. I'm still not a fan of dog-smell."

"I know, Rena, I know."

Immense comfort and terror gripped Kaede by the throat upon crossing the threshold—an opposing mixture of, '_Oh, God, this is it!' _and, '_Oh, God, this is _it…' Her lamp cast the walls in a spectrum of orange splotches, creeping slowly across the perimeter, over Rena's blushing face. It was unexpectedly romantic.

"I think you're really pretty, Rena," Kaede blurted out. Rena squawked, sputtered a little. _Stupid, stupid, that was so cringey! _

As whirled, made her way to a dispenser of hand lotion, Rena wavered as she called aloud, "K-Kaede!"

"Yes, Rena?" she replied, squirting melon-scented goop into her palm.

"Uh, um, thank—er, _you… you're _also… Uh, I mean! _I mean,_ could you please… do something about your other pets? I don't want them in here while we're… t-together."

She tried really hard just now.

"I don't mind." They've been present before, and Rena was wonderful not to even comment on this fact since they started dating, accepting how precious Kaede's animal friends were. "I kind of have to agree, if I'm being honest," she said to fill the silence, picking up Ha-chan's little box after lotioning. "They're too young to be seeing such things." She placed the tarantula's home by the doorway, then made for Pero-chan's.

Rena scoffed by the bed, arms crossed. "They won't even know what we're doing. I just don't want their eyes on me."

"Oh, but they will most certainly know," said Kaede, lifting her snake's box. Unlike Ha-chan, who remained asleep within his half-log, Pero-chan's head emerged from his little "Yoda hut," tongue flicking to investigate the sudden rocking of his home. "Animals can understand when another is in heat, when they're primed for mating."

"That's disturbing as hell. Means your pets'll wanna bang you, right?"

Such charming pre-sex conversation. "I-I-I-It's just their natural instinct!" Kaede choked. "After all, humans are driven by the exact same thing, too. We see something that arouses us, and we'd want to copulate with it." A vibe that screamed, 'Yeah, I know how that is,' filled the silence. At least, that's what Kaede hoped Rena felt as she stacked Pero-chan's case on top of Ha-chan's, and together left them outside her door.

Shutting it, her back turned, Kaede added, "One thing separates us from every other species on the planet: our empathy for each other. It adds a whole other dimension to the mating process, an emotional one."

"Uh… huh." Arms snaked around her waist, a plush warmth pressing into her back. "S-so that's what I gotta blame, f-f-for putting our relationship on pause, huh? Ah…" Her blush was evident—Rena was trying so hard to be playful.

It was totally working.

Kaede held one of Rena's wrists, stroking it with her thumb. "I'm not upset about it," she said. "If you didn't have empathy, I'd still be wondering if you really cared or just wanted me for my body." _Not that anybody would, _she omitted. Let Rena see it and judge for herself, first.

Rena tightened her hug, her chin resting on Kaede's shoulder. "I… I've wondered about that myself," she mumbled. "Whether or not I… really cared about you, or just wanted… y-you… I'm a fucking idiot, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I've been so stupid and confused, Kaede, ever since we met."

So much history. Such a lonely past. A present chock full of more regrets and mistakes than victories or laughs, from Rena's jaded perspective.

She needed laughs tonight. She needed love forever. "I always wondered… what it is I can give you, Rena," said Kaede. "I don't think there's much."

"Kaede—"

"It's fine," Kaede whispered, knowing what was about to come. "Ever since we've met, I've slowly but surely began to notice my worth. And since we started dating, I can see how much I mean to you. My worth in your eyes…"

_Just the fact that you can be like this with me and me alone, it says volumes about you, Rena. So much that I don't think I will ever feel worthy of it. But I can try… _

Kaede allowed herself to simply feel the tightness—the need—in Rena's embrace. Several seconds passed in which her girlfriend hadn't moved a muscle.

Either she was too nervous to once again take the initiative, or… maybe… deep down...

_No. I have to stop thinking about this. I have to be the strong one here. _A thought at once exciting and daunting. "Rena?"

"Mm?"

"I don't... have… a lot of love for myself," she managed, "but I do… f-for you. And it hurts me how, deep down, I can't do much to make you see the person I do."

"Kaede…" Rena breathed, hugging tight.

"All I can offer you, here and now, is myself. My feelings for you, and wants from you… my ugliness, inside and out. All of it, my everything. I'm choosing to entrust it to Minami Rena because she's the only one who can understand me."

Kaede turned before hesitating again, still in Rena's arms, who craned her head back. They were at eye-level, gawking and misty. "I'm afraid that I'll wake up from this dream and… cry, again. Stupid, huh? I just never once thought I'd get to this point," said Rena. "With anybody. Ever."

Kaede almost blurted out 'Why not?' But then she remembered how few people had her empathy and patience for girls like Rena. "You're a compassionate, sensitive person when you trust people enough to get close. I'm sure that, when you are able to do so, you'll find someone even better than—"

"That 'when' is a pretty big wall, Kaede. You know that..." Her 'sadly' was unspoken, but evident.

Kaede moved to comfort her.

Rena's eyes flickered, meeting Kaede's as she neared, widened as their faces neared—only to grunt at her chaste kiss on the cheek. "Anticlimactic teaser," she huffed.

"Yeah, but, I'm over that wall," she whispered in Rena's ear. "If I'm enough to keep you company on this side, Rena, then I'll have a long time to make up for that anticlimax."

Silence. Then, a familiar, singular sob. "Kaede," whimpered her girlfriend, who pulled away, grabbed Rena by the hands, wanting nothing more than to ease her pain. "Kaede, I'm… I'm scared, Kaede." Rena's eyes were wrenched shut, buffering her tears. "I don't know what'll happen to us if we do this. I want it, I want it so bad. But what if that's all I want? What if I'm just a shallow bitch who's been doing this to get what I want?"

"The fact that Rena craves me so badly is making my head light!" She thought twice in a single instant, deciding next upon the sheer fact that strong Rena-chan was this terrified of hurting her: "The fact that she cares so damn much about me, though, it's making my heart stop completely." Kaede blushed—she never imagined herself saying such weird, right-sounding things. The look on Rena's face suggested similar shock.

"I'll be honest, Rena," she told the ground. "Part of me wants to believe, because you're you. But a big one wants to deny everything you're saying as an act, because I'm _me_. Yet I can't deny the reality that you're clearly worked up over this. Thing is, I'll never be happy if you go on denying yourself the chance to be happy with me."

"Oi! N-nobody said that I was denying myself—"

"Yes, you are," said Kaede, grabbing her by either hand. "You have, in the choices you've made since we started dating, you made it perfectly clear that you were sacrificing your wants for my happiness. And that, Rena, is such an amazing thing to feel, realizing it now. Partially because, just like me, you feel undeserving of having such a thing with this girl who you only cause trouble for. And I know you hate that I feel the same way. We're both stuck in our own heads, Rena, our own fears."

She stepped back, clenching Kaede's hands. "Kaede..." She could say no more, deny the obvious truth nor confirm its horrible reality.

"And yet," Kaede finished, "you seriously want me despite all my faults and yours, and though you might argue against it, I want you more than anything or anyone right now. Like it or not, Rena, you're that important to me. And you wouldn't have gone through all this, felt this way, if all you cared about was getting intimate."

Pursed lips stiffened. Rena breathed deep. "Kaede…" Rena swallowed. She released Kaede's hand suddenly, nails biting into her own forearm. "Kaede, I want you," she whimpered. "I want to kiss you. I'm sorry, that's freakish and weird and-_and I'm sorry I'm like this Kaede—_"

That was enough, she thought, grabbing Rena's face, yanking her close. A predator's glint had hooded Rena's gaze, craving Kaede so deeply it destroyed any reservations or doubts she had left. _This is happening, _she thought, bringing her lips past Rena's, to her ear instead. _Finally it's happening, _she realized, wavering her words with excitement, arousal, and half a dozen other emotions as she breathed aloud, "Come on, Rena-chan. _Ravage me._"

Her breathing hitched, her body shivered, and Kaede's face was suddenly within Rena's hold, lips entrapping hers. Shocks surged up Kaede's belly, throughout her bosom with every millimeter of contact felt, every pop and smack as Rena reapplied her mouth again and again.

Kaede's brain, her thoughts, turned to mush: _Rena wants me. _She could only grasp her girlfriend's wrists for dear life. _She really really wants me! _She giggled into Rena's kiss, renewed vigor forcing herself forth, drawing a sweet moan from her girlfriend.

Kaede's face was free, trading places with her small back as Rena squeezed her close, bulbous breasts mushing into Kaede's smaller ones. The hard-softness of the sensation, the very thought of this closeness, chilled and warmed Kaede so bad she squirmed, moaned, raked her fingers into the straps of Rena's top to drag her down to the bed alongside them.

On their sides, Rena pulled away, gaze hooded. One hand pinned beneath Kaede, she tended her other one to brushing Kaede's hair behind her ear. She smiled at the act, the sensation of her delicate combing.

Rena's face glistened orange, a mixture of both the passing lights from the lamp and Kaede's love having attacked her like that. She wondered if Rena's lips tingled badly as well.

"I want to keep kissing," she blurted out, "but only if you do."

Rena's hand stilled, clasping her on the cheek. "Yare yare, you're even needier than I am, you dog." Her smile spoke of teasing.

Kaede blushed, realizing she was right regardless. "Sorry."

She didn't mean to apologize, it was a reflex. But instead of berating her, Rena shot a grin. "Say this for me, and I'll forgive ya: 'I'll be your servant, Master'"

Kaede's belly squirmed at the language, what it suggested. "Rena, that's dirty!"

"So? Say, 'I'll be your servant,' or I'm gonna tease you about this to Momoko."

Kaede smirked. "No you won't."

Rena scoffed, clearly not expecting this lip from her. "A-and what makes you think that, huh?"

Kaede didn't know, but she advanced lips-first as her hands caressed Rena's stomach. It flinched at the alien contact, relaxing as Kaede pushed as gently as her kiss. Rena's breathing deepened, quickened, loudened as she grasped Kaede's elbow. She wasn't pushing away, protesting about her dirty talk. Whatever she was feeling now, Rena wanted more of it—she wasn't letting Kaede go.

She threw a leg up and over Rena's stomach, breaking the kiss to swing over and straddle her narrow hips. Rena's flushing face now beneath her, her eyes wide and nigh-unblinking upon her, blue hair swept mostly to the left, spilling out all in that direction.

"Hi," Kaede trembled.

"Hi." Rena swallowed, inhaling. "You're crushing my pelvis."

Wincing, she said, "Sorry. Then… how about," Kaede murmured, smiling as she lowered her upper body into Rena's. "Weight distribution."

A sweet smile, her girlfriend wiggling a little to adjust, or perhaps enjoy the weight as she smiled all the while. "Much better." She held Kaede's sides, upon her ribs, running her hands along their length.

Kaede shuddered pleasantly at her ministrations. _It's like she's trying to get underneath, while I… I want… _more _of Rena! _Emotions swelling in her breast burst outward as Kaede's hands shot up Rena's stomach, cupping her breasts. Pure heat melted into her palms as quick as the response was instantaneous—a moan and a buckle, a subconscious attempt to halfheartedly escape whilst just as briefly connecting their most private of areas.

_I'm touching Rena… My hands are full of her… _

They fit Kaede's hands completely, so plush yet firm, warm, and rising and falling rapidly as her fingers absorbed their vast dimensions, her hands needing to move to do so—an act that felt like it took an eternity.

Kaede broke their kiss at last, grinning as a pressure prickled her eyes. This was real. This was happening. "You're so big, Rena," she shuddered, overwhelmed by it all. "I'm jealous."

Rena's eyes fluttered almost completely shut. Her brows knitted, flushed cheeks twitching as she grabbed Kaede's wrists. There was a split second of fear that she had gone too far, only for Rena to wrench her eyes shut, pressing Kaede's hands deeper into her, flattening her chest. Copious meat spilled from her top. Kaede could feel Rena's heart going a million miles per hour, her own as well, the tips of two of her fingers at the cut of Rena's top, brushing against scorching hot, sinfully soft flesh.

"You're so beautiful," murmured Kaede. "I've always been so jealous of you."

Rena's labored breaths, lips contorting while squeezing Kaede's wrists, was too beautiful to handle. Kaede almost started crying until Rena exhaled, "I hate these tits," a moan escaping her upon being squeezed. "Fucking apes never paid any attention to me until middle school… and one jackass said I looked like a big-boobed loli. I felt like a circus attraction."

Kaede's heart ached for Rena: part of her had always suspected such things, deep down. But the idea that, back then, Rena was objectified hurt. It hurt enough for Kaede to convince herself that teenage boys somehow had more restraint than that, and that poor Rena was free of such harassment.

All she could do was apologize. "I'm sorry I got excited over this." Kaede rolled her breasts as she spoke, Rena making tiny grunts with her motions. "You must think I'm sick."

A shake of the head. "No, no," she gasped. "Fine… with you… Kaede." A weak smile. "Ah! Damn it feels so good and you're barely doing anything!"

Kaede giggled. Unable to think of something more she confessed, "You'll make me blush." She dipped down, kissing Rena deeply who met her halfway. Kaede's hands pressed down even harder, making Rena moan into her mouth before dropping her head unto the bed.

"Still a perv." Her hands brushed down Kaede's thighs. "And so am I—don't say I didn't warn you!"

Kaede yelped like a rabbit on helium, for an instant later Rena's hands had shot up the backs of her legs, up her shorts to grab her bum. Her fingers even slipped beneath Kaede's underwear, clenching her cheeks without any restraint. "J'herk!" Kaede giggled, buckling. "I wasn't ready for that! ...Ah!" She fell into her girlfriend's shoulder, the feeling—the very thought—of Rena's hands on her made Kaede heart do somersaults, her strength to evaporate completely.

"Now we're even, you groper." Rena's grin stretched into Kaede's peripherals.

"At least m'wearing undies," she exhaled.

"S-so am I!"

"Yeah, but, no bra?" She pinched the peaks of Rena's soft mounds between her thumb and forefinger. "How daring."

"It's so much more comfortable going commando." Good lord, Rena moaning her words was so… so _sexy._ "Normal-breasted girls wouldn't understand," she said, smoothing Kaede's dimensions.

She jerked upright, her spine curved downward as her backside made a subconscious effort to escape from the attack—from Rena's fingers squeezing her, gripping her, squishing her with unbidden lust.

"Heh, did I just find your weakness?" Rena asked, pulling apart Kaede's cheeks and mushing them together, over and over and over and over, her underwear flossing her butt, a feeling which surged throughout her core in a deep, cooling burn. "I guess I have," she answered Kaede's whimper.

"Rena!" she cried, unable to see the face she was making. "Rena!" Kaede dropped to her elbows, laying flat upon Rena's chest.

Anxiously, "Uh, s-say it if you want me to stop—!"

"_Don't stop, don't stop, please don't!" _Fueled by her words Rena's aggression spiked, and Kaede cried out.

It was too much: the light splotches encircling the room flashed, everything flashed bright blinding white, and a sound she'd never heard before moaned past her lips, sheer pleasure rippling down her backside to her very loins.

"_Fuck,"_ Kaede gasped, collapsing on top of—

"Don't move your hands. Plea—_agh!_" Rena reaffirmed her hold. Kaede's writhing, pleasant-painful heart clenched tighter than it ever had before. "I'll die if I feel more good," she slurred.

Seconds ticked by in what felt like an hour. Part of Kaede, the sleepy part weighing upon her eyelids, was fine and vying to go to sleep just like this: satisfied, atop Rena, hugged so gently.

"I never heard you swear like that," she said into her ear. "It was kinda hot, not gonna lie. Just don't make a habit of it like me."

She wanted little Kaede to remain pure.

Picking her head up, looking into Rena's eyes she said, "I'm dirty in other ways, Rena. Ways you'd hate me for, I bet."

"Doubt that. I'm worse." Stated matter-of-factly.

_Try me, _she hoped her grin communicated. Kaede sat up, her thighs bare and quivering slightly as she spread them reached the hemn of Rena's tank top and slipped underneath. Insantly she found herself grasping two handfuls of unbidden, burning-hot Rena, a sharp gasp preceding a louder moan as Kaede flicked over two stiffening nubs.

"Damn it, Kaede. Oh, damn it," Rena gasped, throwing a forearm across her eyes.

_I'll make you feel better about yourself, Rena. _She rolled Rena's within her palms, her girlfriend's torso subconsciously following her ministrations, as if to maintain as much contact as possible. _You might think me perverted, but it's worth the risk if I can prove that what you feel is natural and flattering. _Kaede squeezed Rena as if strangling a stress toy, and marveled at the way her nipples nearly pierced her top, and the ensuing mewl reverberated throughout the room, and Kaede's very soul.

Kaede noticed her hips rocking back and forth across the button of Rena's jeans, a cloying dampness smearing pleasure between her legs.

"I sometimes think about this exact thing while I touch myself," said Kaede, squeezing gentler, "feeling this, hearing this." Rena peeked one eye from her forearm, her screen of blush. "I did it like crazy the first time we kissed." Kaede gyrated a quick two times, laughing and cumming—or perhaps just feeling pleasure—at the sensation. "I do it more than you think, Rena. I think about you so much and when I do I get just like this."

A half-life. This was completely new and daring and strange yet exciting for Kaede, but Rena seemed too cloudy with lust to think deeply:

"Me too," she whimpered. "Me too, Kaede, me too. _Fuck, _ah!"

Kaede released Rena, leaning back despite her protesting moan. Rena's slim stomach, her pale skin and narrow navel—beautiful, every last inch of her. "Let me please you more, Rena-chan." She slid Rena's top up the rest of her torso, over her head, pigtails flopping back down as it came off. Rena sputtered, crossing her chest before Kaede could see anything.

Kaede wasn't so far gone she failed to realize she'd been too eager. "Rena? I-I-I'm sorry, I thought that—"

"It's just embarrassing, okay?!" Silence. "No one's... ever seen me before." Rena had never wanted to do a public bath, Kaede nearly forgot. "Don't… just don't say weird things, okay?"

She had to giggle. "Your definition of 'weird things' can be literally everything, Rena."

"Shut up!" She pouted.

"What if I have a compliment?"

Rena stammered. "Then you're no different from an old man."

That actually hurt, and the falter in Rena's scowl meant it surfaced. "I like to think it's admiring my beautiful girlfriend." A pause—a pleasant one as she felt a lingering tingle 'back there' between her legs. "My beautiful girlfriend, who just handled my butt like a train pervert," Kaede chuckled.

Rena's gaze flared, a scowl forming. "Y-you didn't tell me to stop, idiot!"

"Gee, I wonder why~"

"Because you're too scared to tell me no, I bet." Rena glared aside, probably thinking she was forcing Kaede to act like this. "And why am I the only one without a shirt on!?"

"No," said Kaede, both because she was afraid to show and to make a point: "I won't, so there."

A point which sent Rena reeling slightly. "No? Th-that's not fair, jerk."

Kaede shook her head, rubbing Rena's forearm. She was so warm, so _here_—this was real and Kaede wanted it to be forever. "'No,' as in, 'I'm not going to get naked before I repay you, and I can definitely beat you in a magical girl fight if it came to that for whatever reason. So I can say no if I want.'" She stuck her tongue out.

Rena looked on in awe. "You've changed, Kaede."

"Only cuz of you." She felt shy and silly adding, "Only around you, really."

Rena flushed, stammering, definitely unsure of how to respond to that. "What are you even going on about, 'repaying?' For, what, the butt massage?!"

Kaede shook her head once more, now cupping Rena's cheek. "I wanna give you my everything, remember? To thank you for all you've given me. I'm tired of taking from you, Rena. I took your love these past two months without giving anything back. Let me make up for that."

A frown formed as she relaxed her shoulders, chest still covered. "You're talking like I get nothing from you."

"I told you before that I know that's not true."

"That's why I said you're talking _like _you're saying that, dummy." Rena's gentle scowl softened into worry. "Don't think for a second I'm not gonna get you back for this."

Kaede already expected that, but she teased all innocent-like, "'This?' What's 'this,' Rena-chan?"

Reddening, Rena squeezed her crossed elbows as she cried, "Whatever the heck perverted stuff you're about to do to me! God!" Kaede giggled at her flustered response. Rena fumed, mumbling, "Shut up and get under the covers already." Kaede tilted her head. "And don't look." Rena jammed a finger between them, then booped her on the nose. "I don't want you to see me… y-yet. Come on, get off! Please..."

"Right, sorry."

She slipped her legs underneath the floral print blanket, watching Rena undo her hair ties, setting them aside on the nightstand and reminding Kaede to do the same. Throwing her yellow berries alongside Rena's growing pile of bracelets, Kaede had nothing more to do than admire her girlfriend's narrow, sculpted back shifting with her motions.

Sudden sickness punched her in the gut—was this too creepy?

"Oi! Duck undercover, this isn't a show!" Rena was standing, glaring back with her thumbs hooked into her waistband.

Kaede apologized and yanked the comforter over her head. _Should I just take my clothes off, too? _she thought while awaiting Rena's ok. _She's already going so far without much complaint. _

On Kaede's right the mattress sank, the covers rippled, flooding in light from behind Rena as she crawled through, her flustered face nearing and laying beside Kaede's. Darkness returned as quickly as it left.

It was just the two of them.

And Rena was completely naked, apparently.

"Hi, Rena."

"H-h-hey."

Chest tight, Kaede reached out, clasped a warm, hard-soft curve—Rena's shoulder relaxed after tensing a moment. She trusted Kaede so much.

Just so damn much.

She really was lucky to be a part of Rena's world. "I'm happy that you're my girlfriend, Rena," said Kaede. "And you don't gotta worry about responding, because... because I know how hard it is for you to—"

"Me too." An audible gulp. "I'm happy, too, Kaede…"

She almost couldn't believe it. That was honestly brave of Rena, and she didn't sound hesitant at all. "Yeah?" Kaede felt herself smiling.

An affirmative grunt. "You're always so patient with me and understanding. I beat myself up all the time but you never seem annoyed. And I'm not either, I swear, Kaede! I just-I-I just want you, Kaede, to be, uh, you know, happy, I mean, I…" She hummed upon being squeezed. "Kaede," Rena breathed, "y-you deserve more than anyone to be happy. That's what I'm saying. But… you're not. You… hate yourself, sometimes, l-like me."

Wet warmth prickled Kaede's eyes. She was thankful to be under the covers, or she might scare Rena out of this fragile, beautiful moment.

"I can't really deny that," she said. "I remember how badly I put myself down when we first met, the days before that, too. I… remember how I thought I ruined your friendship with Momoko. I wanted to leave it all and not hurt you."

"God, I'm so glad Momoko's so annoyingly meddling. I feel like shit whenever I think about how I acted."

Kaede hummed in agreement. "She's an amazing friend. We should treat her to something special on Friday."

"Totally."

Silence, but Kaede felt truly comfortable within this moment. Happy, at peace, no tension whatsoever between her and Rena. As she stroked the length of her girlfriend's tiny bicep, the chorded muscle beneath soft instead of tight, she hoped Rena felt it, too.

"But, Rena," Kaede began, "what you said before, about me hating myself… I realized since we became friends, and even more since we started dating, that I love myself when we're together. And day by day, little by little, I find myself loving this clumsy, antsy little girl named Akino Kaede when I'm alone, too. Whether you realize it or not, I see my worth in the way I support you and Momoko."

"Really?" Rena stressed, shifting fabric suggesting she was clenching it, lying on her stomach, creating a mental image of her vulnerable, tensing little body. "Y-you're not just saying that to make me feel better?"

'_But I'm so nasty,' _her airy words implied, '_I must make you feel like shit more often than not.' _

Kaede hummed happily. "I'm not a liar, Rena. You know that."

"I-I know! But—"

"But _I_ know that it's hard for you to believe," Kaede finished. "Like I said before, Rena, it's hard for me to believe that anybody—not just you—cares about me this much. But, you do. You really, really do. You care about me for a lot of reasons, I feel, but the one that sticks out in mind, and makes my heart beat like crazy, is the happiness I give you in return. The trust you have in me, here and now, proves that. You deserve to feel happy, too, Rena. No matter how you feel about yourself."

"Kaede…"

"I care about you so much, Rena. I… I love you."

There was a beat.

And another.

And another.

Perhaps Kaede went and said too—

"M-me too," mumbled Rena, her voice trembling. "I… love you… too, Kaede."

Kaede's heart and loins quivered as one. _She said it. _Kaede shifted closer, caressing Rena's cheek for comfort and navigation. _She actually said it back. She means it, she really means—!_

"I love you so much, Kaede!" And she dove, flattening Kaede on her back, stinging her eyes with sudden orange light from the disco lamp and not just the emotions prickling them. Rena grasped Kaede's face, kissed her deep. "I love you," she hissed between kisses, "I love you, Kaede," another kiss, "_I love you so much." _

Rena's smell, the electricity of her lips, her curtains of long soft hair intoxicating Kaede's senses—it was so much, just enough, and not enough all at once.

Gentle, warm prickles teased Kaede's cheeks. They weren't just her own, she realized as she embraced and squeezed Rena close: _They weren't just her own. _

All Rena wanted, whether she realized it or not, was for someone to say they loved her—a need conveyed in the harsh yet gentle flurry of kisses peppering Kaede's lips, the hushed confessions of love touching her heart every now and then.

"Rena," Kaede breathed, holding her face before her. Rena gazed down upon her, teary-eyed and blushing and panting. "Let me," she swallowed, "let me love you more. Please. I want to, so badly."

Rena hesitated a second. "Okay." She nodded. "Change first, though, please. I-If you, uh, if you want."

Kaede would, in a heartbeat, if she understood what Rena meant. "What do you mean?"

She faltered, doubt clouding her attention away from Kaede. Almost completely until both shoulders were squeezed. Kaede smiled gently upon her, hoping, praying, that Rena imagined no doubt or derision within gaze.

"Your magical girl uniform," Rena enunciated, stiffly so as to sound dispassionate. "I want to see you in it."

Peculiar, a little on the odd side, but Kaede didn't dare spend a thought questioning it and risk making Rena backpedal. With but a single notion—for she almost never removed her ring in case of sudden emergency—Kaede flashed into her druidess attire.

And her bosom thrust up into Rena's suddenly, both whooping in surprise. Kaede broke out snickering. "Sorry, I forgot about my giant hat."

"M-me too. Sorry." Rena sat back, covering her chest as Kaede rose in turn, maneuvering out of her bulky witch's hat as one would a backpack.

Tossing it and her staff unto the ground, Kaede said, "I never understood why it comes with that. It's not like I wear it."

Prior to their eyes meeting, Rena's returned from somewhere below. "Y-yeah."

Kaede had a single guess as to where she was looking and felt self-conscious, but otherwise ignored it completely for Rena's sake.

She would surely understand this request once Rena went about "repaying" her. _Let's not waste anymore time, then! _she thought, her belly lurching every which way.

"So…" Kaede uttered, her eyes lidding as she ushered Rena's face close. As they kissed Rena inhaled sharply, sliding her arms around Kaede's neck, deepening the kiss hard. Incredibly.

Before she could lose herself, Kaede used the last of her strength and willpower to spin themselves around. Rena grunted as she hit the bed, pinned under Kaede's butt. Part of her wanted to feel her skin on Rena's; her writhing netherregions, connected without her shorts in the way.

A briefly-lived, insane part of Kaede almost tore them off then and there—Rena was gazing upon her, wide-eyed and ruddy, like she were a goddess in the flesh.

"Th-thank you." Rena's grasp tightened around her shoulders, deepening her meaty cleavage. "For… listening to my weird request."

Of course she would still put herself down, for Kaede was no better. Smiling instead of reassuring her, lowering herself, she whispered, "And thank _you_. For being in my life... _Rena-chan._" They kissed once more.

And then Kaede kissed her jawline, peppered it.

Then moved to her slim neck, sucking her skin upon hearing a sharp inhale.

Kaede pecked the beginning of her cleavage, burying her lips within, deeper the further down she got. Rena's arms fell away, Kaede's heart skipped a beat or ten.

Her lips found themselves around a hard little nub. Kaede didn't think as she began to suck, moan around it, nibble it soft and just as gently flick it with her tongue, over and over and over and over.

"Fuck, Kaede!" brought her back to reality, to the nails biting into her hair. "Sorry," Rena gasped, "if'm hurting ya…"

Kaede found herself moving left, applying the same ministrations whilst rolling the abandoned, damp nipple within her fingers.

Rena's hips bucked every now and then. Her voice cried just as often, either a curse or Kaede's name. "Thank you," she gasped, wept, moaned occasionally. "Thank you, Kaede, thank you…"

Kaede's scalp ached where Rena twisted clumps of hair, but it was a good ache. It meant love and wanting.

Just as Rena's words often had, no matter their tone.

Her actions, too, no matter how obtuse they were on the surface.

Kaede's other hand replaced her mouth, rolling and kneading, pressing and squishing Rena's breasts together, deeply, and even deeper into her convulsing chest, all while Kaede pushed her lips into Rena's quivering belly.

And again.

Again.

Again and again, moving further down with every peck. She lapped Rena's belly button before proceeding south, inciting her hips to thrust wetly into Kaede's bare stomach. "_Don't do—ah-AH!" _Rena squeaked, her dampness grinding downwards, scorching Kaede's torso. "_FUCK I sound so weird I'M SORRY!" _

Kaede squeezed her one last time before releasing her hands, replacing Rena's breasts with her hips. For half a heartbeat, the sight burned into Kaede's vision even as she regarded Rena: her girlfriend's smooth, glistening slit, her little clit erect and crying for attention.

"This is how much I love you, Rena-chan," said a husky, lustful voice. Kaede bit and tore off one glove at a time, replacing each hand upon Rena's tush, lifting her from the bed. "Don't you dare hold back, I want to hear everything you have to say. Got it?"

Rena's pleasure-drunk flush, her knitted brows, were all she could see through the fleshy valley of her breasts as it rose and fell, pressing shut and falling open erratically.

The sweet musk in her face cut Kaede's patience short. Clenching her firm little butt, she bent to her girlfriend's desire tongue-first, running it from the bottom to top, top to bottom. Rena groaned and moaned, whimpered upon penetration, wriggled her hips. It wasn't enough, neither for her nor Kaede, who opened wide, jamming Rena's crotch completely in her mouth.

Rena gasped deep, haggardly, and tore out with a cry as Kaede sucked with all her might.

The bed thumped with Rena's fist, the sheets lifting as she rose her hands, wringing handfuls of them. Echoing throughout Kaede's world, Rena's cries sang high and long, jolting pleasantly with every pass of the tongue.

That musky smell doubled as a dampness coated Kaede's chin, filled her mouth, slid down her throat and made her brain soft and her thoughts gone completely. There was only Rena, her cries, and her pleasure. Kaede closed her lips solely around Rena's pleasure nub, suckled like a baby whilst flicking it as aggressively as she had her nipples.

Rena squealed, writhed, her hips at once trying to escape and dig deeper into the source of pleasure. Her cheeks within Kaede's palms tightened and loosened on their own, intensified as Kaede remembered to tend to them. She squeezed mightily in tandem with every tongue-flick, driving Rena crazy.

"Kaede, stop! _Kaede! KAEDEEE!_" she sang, hips shivering against her teeth, dousing Kaede again, quenching her.

Writhing, wet warmth between her own legs, a new familiar smell, penetrated Kaede's trance and pulled her out. She suddenly lacked any energy, dropping Rena, leaving her spread open, hips twitching occasionally, her naked body rising and falling heavily with every gasp.

Her face was ruddy as her eyes—a soaking mess slack with shock.

She was completely out of it. It was like she was broken.

Kaede had broken her. She'd gone too far.

She wasn't thinking about Rena's feelings and had gone too far.

_3_

What the fucking fuck-fuck was _that? _

Where the fuck did Kaede learn… _that?! _

Only an idiot would think her girlfriend to be one of those shy little maidens like in the historical dramas. Especially with all the times she showed her steel to Rena.

There was a sniffle, a gasp—Kaede catching her breath, probably.

Never will Rena doubt that girl's strength again. Never ever.

Another sniffle, a damp shudder.

_Kaede? _Rena mustered all strength, lifted her stupid, sloshing head, only for her heart to drop to at the sight awaiting.

That of Kaede, kneeling there, hair a wild bonfire of a mess. _Beautiful, _reacted the stupid primal part of Rena's brain. Everything else was focused on the tears dripping from her jawline, her wrists wiping away tears as they trickled forth.

"Kaede," said Rena, propping herself on her elbows, then her hands. She looked ridiculous, naked and splayed before Kaede like this. But Kaede was crying, and that mattered so much more that it didn't even bother her. "Hey, what'sa matter?"

"I'm—" A sob choked her, and Rena. "M'sorry, I'm so so sorry!" Whatever the hell was her problem, she needed a hug.

Rena staggered to her knees, almost collapsing aside under weak legs, and fell forth, wrapping around her shuddering girlfriend. She smelled sweeter than usual. "You're… pretty damn good at this," was the only awkward thing Rena could think to say, combing Kaede's shoulder-length hair.

"You—but you s-said for me to stop… and I was so gone that I hurt you!"

Did she say stop? "I… don't remember telling you that," Rena confessed, embracing her shoulders. "Heh, all I remember was how crazy good I felt." _And how much you loved me. _That's what Kaede had said before everything became an insanely pleasurable blank. Suddenly saying this felt weird, or inappropriate, might make her feel worse. "Thank you," Rena managed. "You were…" a laugh, "you were really amazing."

A sniffle. "I… I didn't hurt you?"

Rena shrugged, moving her chin to Kaede's other shoulder, kissing her cheek as she passed by. "If I told you to stop at some point, that's probably because it felt so fucking good I was going crazy."

Rena kept the desire for more to herself—_wait, _wait a minute… what point was there in that? She was trying to comfort Kaede, who'd done and said so much to give Rena the same courtesy!

"I want more," she whispered, chest tight with fear, steeling for rejection. "I want it again, as much as we can." Her pussy hadn't stopped quivering, her inner thighs tickled with a steady, warming tease. "Whatever you did, Kaede, it did that 'switch-flip' from the doujins, I think."

"Oh." A soft, wet laugh. "You read doujins, too, Rena?"

She realized what she'd blurted out. Stupid. "S-so does Mitama-san! Every girl does it… I think." Stupid again—obviously she was talking about 'flicking the bean' back then or whatever.

"Right. My bad." Kaede returned the hug, gentle and tender, like her. No derision or apprehension, no genuine fear of Rena or condemnation of her fumbles.

_She really does love me. _Rena's heart stopped and started, too fast and too much at once to count.

"Kaede," she breathed, hearing a grunt in response, feeling it vibrate against her, tantalizing her burning breasts. "Kaede, I want to love you, too. Please. I-if you want."

A cute little laugh. "Yeah, I do want. I've wanted you to want me so bad, Rena." Hand on the small of her back, she could feel Kaede's hips thrust lewdly as she spoke. Wanting.

Who would Rena be to keep her waiting a second longer?

"Okay, take my spot." Kaede crawled by, never breaking eye contact, nor faltering in her smile. Her cute shorts-clad rump seemed to wriggle as she advanced to the bed, teasing. Maybe that was just her walloping, girlish musk drunkening Rena's orgasm-softened brain.

Whatever it was, it didn't make Kaede seem any less like a goddess. Laying there, smiling lovingly but with blatant lust hooding her gaze so shamelessly, it took all of Rena's willpower not to attack her then and there, to not jam her fingers down Kaede's shorts and make her scream her name.

She wanted to make this as special and tender as Kaede had, first.

There was her belly, too, shuddering gently on the exhale. It looked so soft. This was actually happening—_Rena's dirty fantasies were about to come true. _

She crawled forth, Kaede's gaze flickering up and down between her face and, of course, her swinging breasts. She'd given a lot of attention to the part of Rena she craved the most, and without any fear. The least Rena could do was display the same courage.

Yet, it hit her all at once: the weight of this endeavor, this moment, was heavy. It was terrifying. But it was pure and beautiful, because it was just her and Kaede and their's alone. Fuck the rest of the world, fuck the girls who laughed behind their backs, and fuck the horny apes who probably jacked off fantasizing about their closed-door-deeds.

This was their moment. Their special bond.

This was her Kaede. And she was her Rena.

"Kaede," Rena shivered, propped with either hand beside her hips.

"Yeah, Rena?" she breathed lustily, excitement wavering her speech.

"I… think about you, too," she managed. "A lot. Too much to be considered normal." It was a gross half-life, even now, in this critical moment.

But Kaede wriggled beneath her, looking pleased all the same. "And how's that?"

Rena lowered herself, but thoughts of derision stopped her. Those of Kaede's boldness pushed her words though: "I've always thought you looked so… so damn cute, like this." Her gaze flickered down.

Kaede's smile faltered slightly, ever so slightly. But it was there. She was unnerved. Rena was weird, so fucking weird—"You… really thought that?" she tried with forced coyness. "About my…" She gulped. "My uniform?"

Rena swallowed. "Yeah," she heard herself say. "It's weird, I know, it's weird, but-but when I saw you and you're-uh, y-you're… _you're stomach I—!_" Kaede held her cheeks, stroked with her thumbs.

"It's not _weird_," she stressed, squeezing. Kaede grinned, a sparkle lining her eyelashes. "It makes me really happy, honestly. I was always afraid, that…" She sighed, a smile in place with sadness supporting it. "That you thought I looked weird, or stupid."

A swallow. "Or ugly."

Why wouldn't she think she's cute?

"So… if you're really okay with me, Rena…" Kaede released her face, hands laid back on either side of her head, completely exposing herself. "Show me how much you love me," she breathed.

Something within Rena snapped—her common sense—before she dove right in, lips first, hands grasping her pale sides. Kaede's belly quivered at the sudden contact, at the harsh-soft-harsh alteration of Rena's touch, her kisses all over. She moaned sweetly, again and again as Rena reveled in her smell, the plushess of her slight baby fat.

"Goodness, Rena! Ah!" Kaede cried. She was grinning into her shoulder, giggling and moaning. Rena's hand crept upward, to where her poncho ended, kissing her belly button all the while as her thumb gently kneaded into Kaede's soft flesh.

So damn cute.

A firm fabric met Rena's fingertips. Peeking beneath the coarse material of her poncho, she noted, "Huh. Dunno what I was expecting, but it wasn't a sports bra."

"You think I go commando like you?" said Kaede breathily.

Honestly, Rena was too scared of herself to dwell on it. She just fantasized that that was the case. Rena moved her other hand, swiftly hooking her thumbs under the tightness of Kaede's sports bra, and yanked upwards. She was only partially aware of the desperation in her ministrations as she hiked its circumference up Kaede's torso, knowing nothing else until she was faced with Kaede's attempt to cover her shamed blush.

Her blush, and her perky little breasts.

Rena was in awe: sweet Kaede was bare in front of her.

Kaede, who uttered thickly, "I look weird, I know."

_So that's why you didn't want to take your shirt off. _

"Sorry I look like," Kaede hesitated, whimpered, "like _shit_." Such intentional, deep-seated loathing in that cuss.

Rena was appalled, to think Kaede felt this way and to never know until after a year of friendship that she had to begin with. She always wore this uniform like it was natural. "You look normal," she found herself mumbling.

Kaede crossed her arms over her face, voice hitching. "I look terrible. I got a gut and twiggy legs and a small butt and my boobs are stuck half-formed like th—_Ah!_"

Rena squeezed her teats again, drawing another peep. She leaned in close. "You look fucking _normal_." She rolled Kaede in her hands once, instantly making drawing those tearful, widening eyes pop from their hiding place. She was soft as sin and filled Rena's hands without being too much. "You look cute as hell," Rena growled, smiling at Kaede, pecking her uncertain, unprepared lips. "I don't give a damn how you think you look," she added, kissing her, elated to feel her lips press back. Kaede still looked wary, disbelieving though. "You're Kaede, you're my girlfriend. You look perfect to me."

"Re-na," she choked, whimpering as she was squeezed, bosom thrust up into her touch.

Rena moved to her little pink nipple. "Lemme hear that some more, cutie." She thanked God for giving her a long tongue, proceeding to lap Kaede's breast from her thumb to the tip of her nipple without breaking eye contact.

Kaede had, though, throwing her head into the pillow, squeaking with Rena's motions. Moans that urged her to try harder. Rena, grasping and squishing Kaede's breasts together, grinned as she bared her top teeth and proceeded to rake them over those cute pink nubs again and again.

"Ren—_ah! Rena! Rena, please! It feels so good!_" Kaede writhed beneath her, nails pinching into her shoulders. It burned, it felt great. It meant Kaede loved her and the girl she loved was feeling like heaven despite crying a minute ago.

"That's what's nice about girls with small breasts," teased Rena, sucking both at once. "You're so much more sensitive."

"Rena," she cried again, bouncing her hips once as though to buck her off. "I need you, Rena, please!"

She was waiting for that signal, Rena realized—Kaede's permission to touch her deeply. She wasted no time being careful, scrambling back a foot to sit on Kaede's knees, bend forth and tear the button keeping her shorts around those narrow, trembling hips. The zipper whistled sharp, and Rena froze just a second in awe of the small, fiery bush crowning Kaede's lips.

Her lips which quivered, which had spent all this time held back in a veritable dam—Rena only now realized the sweet-reeking stain marking her shorts.

"No going commando, huh?" Rena chided.

Kaede groaned, blush intensifying. "It comes like that, I dunno! I dunno, doncha hate it when your underwear rides up your butt when fighting a Witch?"

"I wear a thong," said Rena, rolling her shorts and long socks down her skinny legs, "so I wouldn't know."

"Oh, I feel so dirty now." Kaede's legs thumped against the bed, her lower half completely exposed to Rena. "You got me wondering what my friends wear into battle."

"Hey, now." Rena placed her hands on her hips. "Stop thinking about other people. This is our time, dummy." She couldn't help but smile—Kaede was too honest for her own good. Too cute, to boot: it wasn't just her bottom half, the whole of her thin albeit soft figure was bare to Rena and Rena alone, save for the poncho and bow hiked up around her shoulders.

Pure, sweet: that's the look she always had, even like this. Once upon a time, it pissed Rena off, for she could never attain that look no matter how thoroughly her appearance changed. Now, she was totally in love with it. She was in love with Kaede.

"You look amazing, Rena." Kaede's hands held clasped before her lips, emphasizing her cuteness. "You always have."

Rena was just a big-boobed loli, but she appreciated the compliment with a kiss—a vicious one. "I'm about to rock your world," she rasped, sitting back, "for that thing you did to me before. I'm gonna hear you sing, too."

Rena stradled one of her thighs while lifting the other, propping the crook of her knee in that of her arm. Seeing it bare and up close, Rena felt the urge to kiss Kaede's leg, and so she did. Again and again, all the way down to her knee and back up her supple little calf.

Was this too weird?

Kaede's eyelids fluttered between shut and squinting, her lips pressed as though awaiting a kiss, little breaths and sounds passing through now and again. This wasn't weird, it felt good to her.

She might just be happy that Rena was crazy about her body.

Regardless of the reason, she was happy, and Rena made it so.

It was time to make her happier, to sate the burning want roaring in Rena's crotch as well: she moved her hips, hovering above Kaede's, ready to drop down and go crazy until her name was called.

"What? What is it, Kaede?" Rena snapped, her concern for Kaede the only buffer from absolutely losing it.

"It's just—wh-what're you doing?"

Rena looked about to see if there was any confusion about the picture. Her hand on Kaede's thigh found itself stroking and squeezing its sponginess. "I'm," she swallowed, "I'm about to fuck you. Is… is that okay?"

Kaede looked stupefied. After a heartbeat, she nodded eagerly. "Yes, please, yes. Sorry, I-I just didn't know that you were gonna go this f-fa—_augh-hah!_" Her cry was sweet music to Rena's ears, who couldn't hold back a second longer after seeing Kaede's eyes light up like that: she had slammed down upon her crotch, slipping off from their shared slickness, and Rena rocked her hips back up, thrusting into her clit, all within a second.

"Stars," Kaede breathed. "I see stars, Rena."

She tried to snicker. "It felt that good?" she tried, before gasping as pleasure shot up her spine, to the backs of her eyeballs once more, her hips swinging on their own. "Fuck." Rena hugged Kaede's leg tight, but her pelvis thrust again, their love buttons kissing wetly.

Kaede squealed, hands clasped before her. "Rena!"

"Kaede!" She couldn't hold back anymore. "Oh, God, _Kaede!_" Rena growled, shocked again and again with every swing of the pelvis, her groin on fire and damp and smelling so powerful with Kaede's mixed in that every sense and thought was beaten beyond the point of mind-numbing pleasure.

"Rena!" squeaked Kaede. "Ah! Ah-hah! It feels so good, _Rena! It feels too good!_" Her lower body, pinned between Rena's legs, beneath her weight, writhed and rocked trying to maintain contact with her clit. "I'm flying, Rena! Ah! _Rena, I'm scared Rena!_"

Rena uttered between every gasp. "Do you want me to stop?" she asked, as her hips bucked again and again, pleasure their only goal. "I can stop." She wasn't so sure about that, but she had to if—

"_NO! Just hug me and don't fucking STOP!" _

Hearing that, hearing Kaede cuss—every grind of her mound felt even better than it already had. Rena cried out if she wasn't already, joining Kaede's as she felt forward, hips mashing into her mewling girlfriend's again and again. Laying against Kaede, squeezed so tight against her that her breasts ached amazingly, the feeling surged throughout her core as she had to proceed by thrusting her entire self to and fro.

Kaede's face picked up, her hand clasping Rena's cheek and stopping her motions, though they continued to roll with need against her bush. "Rena."

"Kaede," she breathed, stopping.

They mashed their lips together, moaning into one another's mouths.

And Rena's world flashed white as harsh, aggressive fingers rammed against her pussy. "F-fucking hell, Kaede!" she gasped, looking below. Between their sweating bodies, Kaede snuck a hand through. The dirty bitch.

She grinned like she knew what she was driving Rena towards.

Rena glanced once more—she hadn't realized Kaede's leg, the one she'd held, had traveled with her dive forth. Either she was crazy flexible or the pleasure was that intense.

Pleasure. Intense. It was just intense, Kaede was attacking her clit like it was no big deal.

Rena's world flashed and she squealed, hearing Kaede hissing in the distance as warm juices rained upon her crotch. "I'm gonna getchu back," slurred Rena.

Before Kaede could process this behind that self-satisfied, lusty smile, Rena sat up, one hand on the back of her thigh, pinning it there. "W-wait," Kaede breathed, still smiling, still excited instead of afraid. Her hips even rolled, soaking, her eyes trained completely on Rena's quivering groin.

That was all the confirmation needed.

She thrust her crotch into Kaede's parted pink clam, and heard her sing. Again and again and again.

_3_

It was always nice having dinner at Mitama's, half because she made for fun company, half because it meant knowing she had an edible meal. That was Momoko's belief, anyway.

Bellies full, conversation lulled, she gazed across the table at the surreal, adorable sight before her.

Of her two best friends, their chairs beside one another, reveling in the contentment of a hearty meal within each other's arms. Strangely, or perhaps not, it was Rena held within Kaede's over-the-shoulder embrace, her hair nuzzled by the softly humming nature-lover.

They only ever got like this at Mitama's or dinner at one another's houses. And only then, when nobody but Momoko was around.

_I'm happy for them, _she thought. _Whatever they talked about, they came to school one Tuesday closer and happier than ever. _

After a few more stories were shared, and some jokes were had, Kaede blushed after having something whispered to her, announcing that she'd forgotten Rena agreed to help feed her pets. They ushered one another out the Coordinator's door, leaving Momoko to clean up the mess.

She didn't mind. Let the lovebirds have their alone time, she thought.

"It's like they're completely different people," Mitama piped up, scrubbing down the crock pot.

Momoko had to laugh. "I wouldn't go that far," she said, drying dishes and placing them on the rack. "They still get into fights, believe it or not. Over pretty petty stuff, too. But… yeah, in a way you're right." Never were their squabbles as harsh as they were before they started dating. "The literally kiss and make up, and in record time these days, too."

Additionally, it seemed rare for Rena or Kaede to blush and stumble over their words. She couldn't even remember the last time one of them put themselves down. She was sure, deep down, they were still the same little ladies she was acquainted with. Mitama was just seeing things.

But something had certainly changed within them, and it was clear they had one another to thank for that.

"Momoko," Mitama sang.

"Yes?~" she teased.

"So, do you ever wonder if they whisper how much they love one another behind closed doors?"

Momoko couldn't help but cough. "Woah, Rena? And Kaede?" She cleared her throat. "I mean, I'm sure one day they'll say that sorta stuff, but I just can't imagine either of them working up the nerve to say something like that! Come on, Mitama…"

She received just a hum in response. "They grew up without you realizing, Momoko." Mitama spoke as if she knew exactly what they had gone through. Crazy girl.


End file.
